Agriculture Business Week

Sheep raisers in the Philippines are much less than goat raisers. That’s probably because most Filipinos have been used to eating goat rather than sheep. But there is an increasing awareness of the potentials of sheep production as a possible money-maker for local farmers.

That’s the belief of Jonie and Jeff Valencia, the father and son tandem who run the Ebenezar Goat Farm in Brgy. Arangureng, Capas, Tarlac. The Valencias have been importing small ruminants from Australia since 2005 which they sell to local farmers as well as to the government’s small livestock production program.

During their first three years of operating their goat farm, they were importing only goats for breeding.

They have imported 1,300 goats for Congressman Abdullah Dimaporo, for instance. Another recent big shipment of goats numbering 766 was for the government. Of course, they also sell a lot of goats for breeding to individual farmers.

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Posted on August 2nd, 2010 under Livestock. Tags: Sheep, Tarlac. Comments: 12

Sweetpotato would taste sweeter for farmers in the provinces of Tarlac and Albay

That’s because a P13.9 million sweetpotato production and livelihood program is being undertaken to enhance its potential as a cash crop in these calamity-prone provinces where many sweetpotato farms are located.

Called “Enhancing Research Utilization for Sweetpotato Livelihood Development in Disaster-Prone Communities,” this, is a program of the Philippine Root Crop Research and Training Center (PhilRootcrops) and the Philippine Council forAgriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD).

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Posted on November 1st, 2009 under Other Crops. Tags: Albay, Philrootcrops, Sweetpotato, Tarlac. Comments: 3

Ex-NPA chief Bernabe Buscayno of Talaga, Capas, Tarlac and Capas Mayor Reynaldo Catacutan are both producers of organic bananas. The methods of these close friends, however, are very different. Catacutan is into the scientific, while “Kumander Dante ” practices what he calls primitive banana production that he learned from the natives when he was in the boondocks.

Buscayno started venturing in banana production in 2004. But before this, he was producing rice. He had even established a rice farmers’ cooperative after then President Corazon Aquino granted him a reprieve. The co-op unfortunately fell apart because the 2,000 members were affected by the Mt. Pinatuba eruption in 1991.

Buscayno was encouraged by his friend who was working at the Lorenzo Farms in Davao to plant banana instead of rice as the return of investment with banana is more substantial. He was convinced of its potential and so he ordered 4,000 tissue-cultured  seedlings from the Lorenzo Farms. He bought cavendish, lakatan, and latundan varieties at P30 each.

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Posted on August 19th, 2009 under Fruits, Organic. Tags: Banana, Fruits, Organic, Tarlac. Comments: 6

In October last year, Gov. Victor Yap officially launched the ‘Natural Tarlac’ program which aims to make the province a major producer of organic farm products. Organic farming, of course, involves the growing of crops without the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Instead, farmers use bio-organic fertilizers, botanical pesticides, beneficial microorganisms, and other techniques of natural farming. Livestock raisers, on the other hand, don’t give antibiotics to their pigs, chickens and other farm animals.

The governor has good reasons for wanting the farmers to get into organic farming. For one, there is an increasing trend towards the consumption of organically grown food products. Organic products command a higher price in the market and this will enable farmers to earn more from farming. Besides being safer for the farmers, they can save on production inputs because chemical fertilizers, pesticides and veterinary drugs have become very expensive.

Recently, we had occasion to visit some of the organic farmers in Tarlac in the company of provincial agriculturist Edwina Tabamo and former provincial agriculturist and now consultant Lucrecia G. Ilaga. We visited the bio-organic fertilizer factory of Dr. Ronaldo Sumaoang in Sta. Ignacia, Tarlac which produces Durabloom that is now used by many farmers in the province. We also visited the organic papaya plantation of Sta. Ignacia Vice Mayor Reynaldo Modomo who also manufactures his own organic fertilizer.

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Posted on July 13th, 2009 under Farming, Organic. Tags: Durabloom, Organic, Tarlac. Comments: 6

Organic Agriculture is the trend today. The demand for organic, food and products is increasing as consumers are becoming health conscious. Likewise, provincial governments are implementing programs on organic farming to safeguard health of citizens and generate more income through increased food production.

Tarlac is one of the provinces in Central Luzon that is already into the organic craze. Five months earlier, the provincial government launched its Natural Tarlac program, which was conceptualized by Governor Victor A. Yap. The program primarily aims to “improve the quality of agricultural products and increase food production in Tarlac through extensive use of organic fertilizers,” says Yap.

The initial implementation of the program this dry season is focused in rice production, according to Edwina K. Tabamo, provincial agriculture officer. Rice farmers are entitled to a P2,000 (20 percent) discount for every 10 bags of organic fertilizer they buy from the Municipal Agriculture Office. Included in this is the P1,000 discount courtesy of the provincial government and another P1,000 discount from the P10 million subsidy promised by the Department of Agriculture (DA), she added.

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Posted on May 30th, 2009 under Organic. Tags: Farming, Organic, Tarlac. Comments: 2